Drama Analysis. Arthur Miller creates a dense and almost dark world in his tragic play Death of a

Transcription

1 Clinch 1 Drama Analysis Sarah Clinch Denise Howard Long English 301 Spring 2008 Happyness and the American Dream Arthur Miller creates a dense and almost dark world in his tragic play Death of a Salesman. Willy Loman, the main character of the piece, searches for the American Dream; he pursues it with all his being. The American Dream personified in the play consists of economic prosperity, social popularity, and an educated mind. Sadly, Willy fails in his pursuit, falling short of the Dream he so earnestly hoped for. While some argue the tragic nature of the play, wondering if Willy Loman qualifies as a tragic hero, the main character type of tragedies, Miller himself poses the answer, stating: the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy as kings (DiYanni 1211), and also: the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life (DiYanni 1211). Willy Loman, in Death of a Salesman, may or may not fit the bill as an apt character for a tragedy; however, he is not the only character struggling with issues. Each character in the play, including the most minor of parts, shoulders burdens of some kind. Specifically, Willy s son Harold, called Happy, earns this nickname by keeping his mask on, deluding himself into a caricature of obedience and happiness, in order to placate others around him as well as himself. By idolizing his father and brother, he abandons self-discovery. He lacks a real personality and appears flat and onedimensional upon reading the play. Happy, in Arthur Miller s Death of a Salesman, despite his zeal and zest to live the American Dream of prosperity and self-awareness, never embodies it.

2 Clinch 2 Happy s nickname says a lot in regards to his character. In a sense, Miller caricaturizes his character; he gives us a name to associate mannerisms and personality with. Our inculcated beliefs bring assumptions to how we view the character of Happy. This particular character s name embodies an emotion, and therefore we assume the character feels no other emotions. While he is able to experience many emotions, Happy relies upon happiness as a default with which he can improve any situation he finds himself in. When Biff and Happy discuss their father s growing incapacity to drive, Happy s light and easy way of dealing with their father s trouble overshadows Biff s cruel truths. As Happy says, he stops at a green light and then it turns red and he goes. (He laughs) (DiYanni 1217). Happy cannot deal with his father losing his eyesight; he uses humor to laugh away the problem, to set it aside for future worrying. Periodically throughout the play, in the flashbacks when Biff and Happy are young, Happy mentions to both of his parents how much weight he has lost: I m losing weight, you notice, pop? (DiYanni 1222), and the same words again on page Each time he mentions this fact, his father brushes him off. Another instance in which Willy and Linda disregard something Happy says is when he states he is going to be married: HAPPY: I m gonna get married, Mom. I wanted to tell you. LINDA: Go to sleep, dear. HAPPY: I just wanted to tell you. (DiYanni 1242) Willy and Linda are always more concerned with Biff or with something in their own lives. To deal with the hardships around him, Happy contents himself with a perpetual glee, through which nothing bad can harm him. This happiness proves to destroy any hopes of Happy fulfilling the American Dream. The false emotion he conveys to his family, associates and acquaintances makes him a likeable, but not loved, character. Happy s social popularity stems from Biff s

3 Clinch 3 popular high school days, and is not from self-merit of Happy s. Though Happy brags by saying he is the assistant buyer where he works, he in fact lies. As the assistant to the assistant buyer, Happy has little to no economic prosperity in his life. How to score girls, taught to Happy by Biff, seems the only education Happy has learned. All of Happy s faults come together, symbolized by his nickname, to bring about his failure in the pursuit of the American Dream. In addition to his nickname, the relationship between Happy and his father damages his hopes of fulfillment in his life. Happy idolizes Willy, and will do anything he can to show his father the love he has for him. Happy declares that he will carry your bags, Pop (DiYanni 1223), and while normally Willy disregards anything Happy says, when it comes to servitude, Willy hears Happy s offer and jumps on it. Willy obviously favors Biff as a son, always putting him first: BIFF: Gee, I d love to go with you sometime, Dad. WILLY: Soon as summer comes. HAPPY: Promise? WILLY: You and Hap and I (DiYanni 1223) Even though Happy asks Willy to promise to take them on one of his trips, Willy promises Biff first. As the younger son, Happy lacks importance underneath Biff, the shining football star. Happy constantly sticks up for his father, especially when the beloved son Biff criticizes Willy. When Biff compares Willy to Charley, the neighbor, Happy jumps in to defend his father, saying: Charley never had to cope with what he s got to (DiYanni 1236). Even if Biff s words ring true, Happy glosses over them; his love for his father envelopes him so deeply he sees no wrong whatsoever in the old salesman. Happy loses himself by idolizing his father. By spending so much time defending his weaknesses, Happy never finds time to discover himself. Because he

4 Clinch 4 does not discover who he truly is, he seeks to mimic his father s personality. Happy loses his individuality when he chooses to become his father. Without individuality, Happy can never embody the American Dream, for American pride stems from uniqueness and individual prosperity. Happy s relationship with his father endangers Happy s successes, and in the end, becomes one of the main reasons why Happy loses his chances for the American Dream. In addition to the relationship with his father, Happy s relationship with his brother Biff proves to deter him from success. Biff forces Happy to tell him what Willy mutters when he thinks no one hears him: BIFF: What s he say about me? HAPPY: I can t make it out. BIFF: What s he say about me? HAPPY: I think the fact that you re not settled, that you re still kind of up in the air (DiYanni 1218) Biff constantly uses Happy to his advantages, and yet, instead of protesting or refusing, Happy seems glad to be Biff s slave. When Biff and Happy come onto the stage in the middle of the play, about to go to a football match, Happy is carrying Biff s shoulder guards, helmet and football pants. When Bernard, Charley s son, rushes in, he fights with Happy over carrying the gear: BERNARD: Biff, I m carrying your helmet, ain t I? HAPPY: No, I m carrying the helmet. BERNARD: Oh, Biff, you promised me. HAPPY: I m carrying the helmet. (DiYanni 1251)

5 Clinch 5 This petty fighting suggests Biff s popularity, as well as how much love and admiration Happy held for him. Happy often repeats himself when referring to Biff, cementing his feelings for him. Perhaps the most interesting facet of Happy and Biff s relationship deals with their professions. Happy holds the assistant to the assistant buyer position at his business, and the jobs Biff finds all fail to interest him. The only job Biff found to be worthwhile was working out on a farm. Biff plans on returning to the West to work outdoors and live life according to his wants, and when he invites Happy to go along with him, he states I m tellin you, kid, if you were with me I d be happy out there (DiYanni 1219 emphasis mine). Biff would be Happy if they were to go out West together; a role reversal would occur. While here at home Happy is the pseudo-successful son, out West Biff would succeed. Biff developed his own personality and knows how to deal with freedom; however, since Happy mimics his father s personality and does not know what true freedom feels like, he would be unable to succeed out West. Biff furthers Happy s inability to find himself and the American Dream, because as an idol to Happy, he stands as an obstacle, keeping Happy from true happiness. Another deterrent to Happy s happiness stems from Happy s need to play the middle man between Biff and Willy when they bicker and fight. Happy, enforcing his name, acts happy and complacent, as if nothing were the matter, in order to keep his brother and father from fighting to the point of using their fists to make their points. When Biff is miffed at Willy for acting crazy when his mother was in the house, Happy pleads with his brother to talk to him in the morning, will you? (DiYanni 1221); he wishes Biff would have a good talk with him (DiYanni 1221). Happy acts as a pacifier between Biff and Willy; he always calms Biff down: come here, Biff, let s talk this over now, let s talk some sense here (DiYanni 1239). Happy s focus is concentrated on Biff and Willy s happiness, and therefore he uses false happiness to generate the

6 Clinch 6 happiness in his father and brother. The false happiness he uses eventually becomes his norm, and therefore keeps him from true happiness. Happy busies himself with his father and brother, and finds no time to discover himself, thereby failing in his search for the American Dream. While the focus of Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, tragically shows a man struggling with life and the search for the American Dream, perhaps the more tragic characters are those people caught up in the wake of Willy s life. Happy, Willy s son, fails to prosper and succeed on his own due to his father s neglect and his brother s abuse, and also, in part, to his own need to fix the rifts between father and brother. Happy deludes himself into believing he has reached economic prosperity, since he lies even to himself as to his position at his business; social popularity, since the only popularity he finds is with the girls he brings home; and an educated mind, since the only education he proves he has received is how to pick up the girls he brings home. Happy appears flat and one-dimensional throughout the play; he lacks depth, and therefore is content with the false happiness he has fooled himself into believing to be true happiness. Happy stands out as a tragic character all on his own, and while I pity him for his ignorance of his situation, I cannot sympathize with him. He had chances to get away from Willy and to start his own life, but because of the love he held for his father, he refused to leave, and this decision proved to fuel his failure.